Mental Health Alert: Under the legislation, mental health professionals will be required to report to local mental health officials when there is reason to believe a patient is likely to engage in conduct that will cause serious harm to themselves or others. This information will then be crosschecked against the new comprehensive, and regularly updated, gun registration database. If the patient possesses a gun, the license will be suspended and law enforcement will be authorized to remove the person’s firearm.

Tougher assault weapons ban: The legislation outlines a stricter definition of assault weapons, and implements an immediate ban of defined assault weapons. Under the stricter definitions, semi-automatic pistols and rifles with detachable magazines and one military style feature will be considered assault weapons. Semi-automatic shotguns with one military style feature will also be considered assault weapons. Assault weapons possessed before the effective date must be registered within a year recertified every five years. Owners of grandfathered assault weapons may only sell out of state or through an in state federal firearms licensee. Under the legislation, the Bushmaster used in the Newtown, Connecticut shooting would be illegal.

Stronger regulations on ammunition: Under the legislation, New York will have the strongest ban on high capacity magazines in the country, with a limit on capacity of seven rounds, down from the current limit of ten. The legislation includes a ban on possession of pre-1994 high capacity magazines, and will require owners to sell the banned magazines out of state within one year. Existing ten round magazines can be grandfathered in, but may only be loaded with 7 rounds.

To track high-volume ammunition purchasers, the legislation will make New York the first state in the nation to track ammo purchases in real time. All dealers in ammunition must be registered with the State Police, and each sale will require both a state background check and transmission of a record of the sale to State Police, so as to enable alerts of high volume purchases. Ammunition records will be purged within a year of submission. Dealers must report any loss of inventory. The legislation will also include a ban on direct internet sales of ammunition. Ammunition ordered over the internet must be delivered in a face-to-face transaction with a firearms dealer and the purchaser will be subject to the state background check. The Aurora shooter reportedly amassed 6000 rounds through direct online purchases.

Statewide recertification of handguns and assault rifles: The legislation will require individuals who own a handgun or an assault rifle to recertify their permit every five years through their county of residence. With this more accurate information, the state will establish an electronic gun permit database that may be run against other databases containing the names of people who would be disqualified from possessing firearms, including those with criminal convictions, involuntary commitments, and those subject to orders of protection, as well as death records.

Universal Background Checks — closing the private sales loophole: The legislation will require all gun transfers between private parties, except immediate family, to be conducted through a federal firearms licensee, subject to a subject to a federal National Instant Criminal Background Check.

Webster Provision: Under the legislation, murder of a first responder who is engaged in his or her duties would become a Class A-1 felony, with a mandatory penalty of life in prison without parole. This provision was created to honor the memory of Lt. Mike Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka who were victims of a fatal shooting in Webster, New York, on December 24, 2012.

Extending and Strengthening Kendra’s Law: Kendra’s law will be extended for two years –through 2017 — and the period of mandatory outpatient treatment will be extended from 6 months to one year. In addition a review will be required before a mentally ill inmate is released from state prison.

Protecting Families: When a judge issues an order of protection and finds a substantial risk that the individual subjected to the order will use a gun against the person protected by the order, the judge is required to the surrender of the weapon.

Safe Storage: To better ensure that guns are kept inaccessible to those who are barred from possessing them, the legislation requires safe storage of firearms in households where individuals live who have been convicted of a crime, involuntarily committed, or are subject to an order of protection. Existing state law already requires that all guns sold at retail in the state be sold with a gun lock.

Keeps Guns Out of Schools: Under the legislation, the penalty for possession of a firearm on school grounds or a school bus would be increased from a misdemeanor to a Class E Felony.

Tougher penalties for illegal gun use: The legislation establishes tougher penalties for those who use illegal guns as well as measures to help combat gang violence.

I hope this definitive information about what’s contained in NYSAFE proves helpful to keeping our blogs and comments accurate and factual.

21 Responses

You are wrong in that:
Even if you dont own a pistol, you are going to have to go through this paperwork and ultimatly pay to recertify your pistol permit. Nothing that can generate revenue in NY is free for long.

“To track high volume ammunition purchasers” is wrong, all ammunition sales will be tracked and “ammunition records will be purged” doesnt say they will be destroyed, you have got to be kidding. the highest volume purchasers are those who use guns for sport and there are many of them. Ammo components, powder, primers etc are going to be banned from private sale as a “loophole” in the ammunition laws.

Mr Huber, thank you. I look forward to addressing everything in your topic. I don’t have much for time tonight, but as for the 7 round magazine limit, no one makes them. It’s a de facto ban on nearly all handguns, and the present supreme court decisions make that null and void.

You cannot ban a class of guns commonly used for self defense, directly or otherwise. District of Columbia v. Heller.

Problem that sticks out. People that were subject to an Order of Protect we’re already prohibited from owning a firearm, both at the state and federal level. Problem is that the Feds will not prosecute. So please explain why we passed a law that was already law?

You can’t have a pistol permit and not own a gun.
If you don’t own a gun you don’t need a permit.
That is why you need to purchase a handgun (but not take posession yet) and submit the information on it with your permit application.

If you have a pistol permit and currently no pistol, you will have to recertify. They will make it expensive.
If you get a temporary order of protection, very easy for angry x gf to obtain, you are going to have to surrender up your guns bro.
Dont take the ammo registration lightly, it intentionally totally disregards reloading your own ammunition, which makes it useless in its current form, except setting the framework to charge us.

You can have a permit and not own a gun. No where in NYS law says you can not have permit without owning a gun. Logic would say you have to because you can’t have the pistol without the permit, so the permit would come first. Many of my coworkers have a permit without a personal weapon on it.

What, exactly, qualifies as a high volume of ammunition? Anybody know?

Don’t bother calling the state police hotline, they don’t have a clue. My guess is it will be the decision of whoever is reviewing the purchase, the very definition of “arbitrary and capricious”.

Originally NICS was supposed to do the background checks on ammo purchases, but the legislators who wrote this were too stupid to realize that NICS is federal, established under the Brady law, and there’s no provision for ammunition purchases under Brady. NYS was informed by the feds that no ammo checks would be performed by them. So now NYS has to create it’s own system at taxpayer expense.

Back to ammo quantities, serious shooters nearly always buy in excess of 1,000 rounds at a time, especially in .22 caliber pistol practice. There’s simply no point in shipping ammo to buy 50 rounds, the shipping costs are too expensive. So if they’re planning on home visits checking up on people, they better plan on doing a lot of them.

As for me, I’ll simply ride over the border to Vermont a few times a year and do my buying there. It’s perfectly legal, and I’m not sharing information about any lawful activity with agents of a state that’s pulled a stunt like this one.

See how easy that was, grabbers? Your whole ammunition tracking nonsense goes down the tubes with a car or motorcycle, a sunny afternoon, and a couple of gallons of gas. But I’m sure you’ll be catching lots of gangstas and psychopaths with it, just like you did with CoBIS, 44 million dollars of taxpayer money wasted over 11 years to find ONE SINGLE pistol that wasn’t even used in a serious crime, just a negligent discharge.

The ammunition checks are nothing more than backdoor registration. They won’t know exactly what guns you have, but they will have a list of all of the calibers of ammunition that you buy, which makes it relatively easy to figure out.

You buy 12 and 20 gauge shells for trap shooting, now they know you have 2 shotguns. And your name and address. So when shotguns become registrable by law they know right where to find you.

@Kevin the Sheepdog:
Additionally, one handgun can be on multiple permits. My permit has one that I own and two that my father owns. I did that so if something happened to my father I would be able to legally take possession of those handguns without my mother having to deal with it.

@D357:
I agree with your question but unfortunately I don’t have an answer either. Additionally, will there now be limitations of ammunition. Will you be considered a terrorist and/or your firearms taken away if you exceed an arbitrary limit? What about reloading supplies?

@Johnny Ratchet:
I agree that the 7 round magazine is ridiculous from the standpoint that no one makes them which makes it an ex-facto ban – according to the Buffalo lawyer who filed a class actions suit on that basis because the government is now FORCING you to give up and/or will confiscate with no compensation (making it different than imminent domain which I’m sure will come up as a defense) property that you already have legally and lawfully owned. All the anti’s say the NRA gutted the 1994 ban by working in a grandfather clause but they simply recognized government taking property as illegal and unconstitutional – grandfathering is a legal concept that has been around long before the second amendment.

One good thing that will come of any challenge to the magazine capacity will be the motivation behind it. Is it just an arbitrary number or will it be proven to be a back door ban? I believe it is a backdoor ban. The last time “high capacity” magazines were limited the motivation was to give back the tactical advantage to police that were literally being outgunned but this is a different ballgame because not only did we have 1/3 of the magazine capacity the rest of the country had already but a 10 shot limit was the recommendation at the federal level so why exceed it?

This is why this should’ve been done carefully and deliberately – to give ample time to consider the many questions that undoubtedly will come up. Passing a law first and then dealing with the fallout does a HUGE disservice to everyone both from a democratic and safety standpoint.

Apparently that case was supposed to go before a judge on the 21st, Eric Schneiderman asked for and was granted an adjournment until April. They know they’re in trouble. In addition to having to pay compensation for around a million standard capacity magazines there’s also the issue of the losses of those lawfully selling firearms in this state, and those are considerable. Kind of a joke really, this broke state couldn’t pay my tab at 677 Prime, much less these amounts.

Anyone who has a problem with any of the above restrictions probably shouldn’t own a firearm. I mean really, why would anyone be against a background check unless they wouldn’t pass it? Or against closing the private sale loophole to keep guns out of hands of people that can’t purchase them legally? or against having tougher penalties for illegal gun use? or against the authorities being alertet to someone purchasing enormous amounts of ammo? These all make sense to me. So you have to register your firearms. So what? You have to register your vehicle. You have to have background checks just to be a teacher for Pete’s sake. Simple safety measures all the way around makes it safer for all.

@Snicker Doodle:
Your comment makes me think you aren’t paying attention at all to the arguments presented here. Gun rights advocates by and large are not against the parameters you mention. I don’t think any of us are against background checks and in fact wish to improve it by including a mental health aspect. We are not against increased penalties either and in fact have been saying for years to enforce these laws.

I can tell you why people are upset about ammunition limits – its because this new law doesn’t specify a ceiling for ammunition purchases and so you go into a store to buy some .22’s and the next thing you know your being arrested as a terrorist?

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it so yes registration is a problem because history has taught us that registration equals confiscation. Government confiscation of personal property is HUGE problem – how do you not see that firearm confiscation can be used as a precedent for ANYTHING you own – maybe the government will get to something you do value.

Vehicle registration is a privilege not a right – its time you learn the difference. Teacher background checks didn’t stop any of the school shootings did it? Its actually kind of coincidental you mention that though. The SRO in my school doesn’t want teachers and administrators to be involved in dealing with the “bad guy” and to a certain extent I understand and agree with his point of view. However, he did mention that school shooters usually take themselves out at the first sign of resistance and that seconds count. Consider however that when SECONDS count and first responders are MINUTES away why not offer resistance faster in an effort to save lives – not for nothing but in all the school shootings I am unaware of any first responder being injured – only teachers and students so doesn’t it make sense to utilize teachers/administrators that can offer some resistance and save lives?

The parameters of the new law are not safety measures because by and large they don’t address safety. Education to address a violent gun culture addresses safety. Studies to check for links to violent media contributing to behavior would be a safety measure – both were not addressed.

The problem with registration is that everyone agrees that has to be the first step before confiscation. It certainly doesn’t make anyone safer.
And the so-called SAFE law doesn’t even define what an “enormous” amount of ammo is…a thousand rounds of .22 cal sounds like a lot…but $50 worth doesn’t sound like much.

@Joe, you have to show your ID to buy Mucinex. Like I said before, you can thank LaPierre for causing mass paranoia and hysteria over common sense proposals. Nobody is confiscating anything or banning guns. That’s ridiculous. Teachers should not be trained snipers. They are trained to teach. You really think we should add sniper training to their already packed schedules? All this is just pure madness. I never knew so many had such a strong love for their guns, more than the safety of their loved ones or anyone else until all this madness started. The comments are just insane to me (I’m talking about on FB). Is it not a fact that when the weapons ban was in place (why the hell was it allowed to expire??), gun violence decreased? I saw that actual data somewhere. I will have to find that again. Nobody was crying about it then, were they? Data is fact. You can try and argue that all you want but it doesn’t change the facts. And why do people need to buy massive amounts of ammo at once anyway? I personally don’t get the fascination with guns. I’d much rather go hiking or have a bbq then go kill some poor animal for jollies. Sick!

No law-abiding citizen should have a problem having every gun they own registered and titled. If you have to register a boat, a car, or a freakin’ dog, you should have to register your guns. I have nothing to hide and would have no problem registering mine. If you own or need assault weapons, and your problem is fear of confiscation or to fight government’s alleged tyranny, you are entirely too crazy to own a firearm in the first place.

So now we have two companies that will not longer deal with New York because of its law. LaRue and Olympic have stated that they will no longer deal with NY or in the case of LaRue, treat Law Enforcment the same as its citizens. Good for them I say, and yes I am LEO. What is going to happen when Glock does it? NYSP has Glocks, my department has Glocks, most of NYS has Glocks! This is going to get interesting.

ID for some medications and currently a background check and ID to purchase firearms and some ammunition supplies such as gunpowder – what’s you point?

“Nobody is confiscating anything or banning guns” Have you not heard the Governor say that confiscation was on the table not to mention the ex-facto ban already in place disguised as magazine limit?

“teachers as snipers” – never said that – what I said was the SRO in my school indicated that school shooters when they encounter resistance they commit suicide so why not use the resources you have available to provide that resistance sooner in order to save lives – the lives that are actually being taken in school shootings – teachers and students (no cops have been killed in a school shootings)

The assault weapons ban of 1994 was allowed to expire because NOBODY was prosecuted with this law – it was a money wasting failure.

Data is fact? – Haven’t you learned anything from posting comments i.e. to post only accurate data on not just data you believe might be fact.

Massive amounts of ammo? What is massive to you? The SAFE act didn’t specify any amount much less what is considered massive or even criminal. That’s a HUGE problem. How about this one: Bells and whistles going off and bars closing over doors and windows preventing escape while BATF agents step out from behind a false wall to arrest you because you just attempted to purchase your thousandth BB and didn’t know you exceeded an imaginary limit.

“jollies” from hunting? Don’t know about that but I do get meat from hunting for my BBQ.

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